Turkish police have reportedly determined that a ton of drugs seized from a ship in an operation off the Suez Canal belonged to Taliban.

The Turkish authorities on June 2 staged a major anti-drug operation on a Congo-flagged ship called “Commander Tide” and confiscated a total of 1,071 kilograms of heroin, which has the estimated market value of approximately 200 million Turkish Liras.

British and Turkish police launched joint efforts after receiving intelligence that the ship was often used to carry drugs on the South America-Europe route, daily Milliyet reported on June 8.

The Department of Struggle Against Narcotic Crimes, in cooperation with British security officials, started to track the ship over “carrying suspicious cargo.”

Authorities determined that the ship was brought under tracking two years ago for a similar reason, but no drugs on it were found at the time.

After finding out that the ship took from the Mediterranean to reach the Atlantic Ocean over Gibraltar in order to smuggle drugs from Asia in March, the authorities established that the ship had anchored off Pakistan-India territorial waters in order to wait.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu ordered an operation to be carried out in order not to risk the tracking process after receiving information from security units.

While the ship was waiting off India, a file prepared by the Turkish Interior Ministry was sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the Foreign and Justice Ministries.

Authorities from the DRC said there was no ship carrying their flag, which was followed by the conclusion of the preparations to launch an operation in international waters by the end of May.

Upon the orders of the Turkish Defense Ministry, the operation was launched with joint efforts of the Naval Forces Command, the Coast Guard Command and the police.

The route of the ship heading to the Suez Canal was brought under satellite surveillance by British security units and the Turkish authorities took action after the ship passed the canal and started heading to the Mediterranean. Nine Turks were detained in the operation.

It was determined that drugs were carried on the ship, which did not approach any port via small boats.
After carrying out investigations on the heroin packages, police concluded that they were from Afghanistan and originated with the Taliban.

According to officials, the operation was supported by two maritime warplanes and helicopters and lasted for 26 minutes.

A group of people attacked an Afghan migrant in Istanbul’s Fatih district on May 15 at the funeral of a man killed one day before, leading the police to calm the crowd down by dispersing them with paint capsules.

Tension arose after a 24-year-old local man, Ramazan Şahin, was killed during a brawl between locals and migrants living in Istanbul’s Sultangazi district late on May 14, with riot police intervening in a group protesting the murder with water cannons and tear gas.

The brawl was reportedly ignited after a group of Syrian and Afghan migrants heckled women in the İsmetpaşa neighborhood of the district.

Locals reacted against the heckling, leading to a fight in which Şahin was heavily wounded.

Ambulances and police officers were dispatched to the scene. Şahin was taken to a nearby private hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

On the day of the funeral, tensions continued after a group of people attacked the Afghan migrant walking on a street near the Akşemsettin Mosque. Police intervened in the attack, saving the Afghan migrant. However the crowd later directed their anger at press members present at the mosque.

The tension has been reported as still present in the area.

Şahin’s relatives gathered in front of the hospital after the announcement of his death, with his uncle, Salih Arslan, saying his nephew was stabbed by a member of the foreign group.

“The incident occurred at around 11 p.m. over the heckling of women in the neighborhood by some Afghans and Syrians. Ramazan Şahin is my nephew. He went outside after he heard noise from outside. Youngsters in the neighborhood started a fight with almost 60 people, including Syrians and Afghans. My nephew lost his life at the age of 24 after being stabbed by one of them,” Arslan said.

He also stated that similar incidents had been happening in recent days.

“We condemn those who have filled their houses with Afghans and Syrians just to gain 10 or 20 Turkish Liras more. We will protest this incident tomorrow after the funeral ceremony,” Arslan said.

“We are suffering and we will not harbor those who made us suffer. These kinds of incidents are happening constantly but nobody intervenes in them,” he further said.

Turks began voting in a hotly contested referendum on Sunday that could place sweeping new powers in the hands of President Tayyip Erdogan and herald the most radical change to the country’s political system in its modern history.

Opinion polls have given a narrow lead for a “Yes” vote, which would replace Turkey’s parliamentary democracy with an all-powerful presidency and may see Erdogan in office until at least 2029.

The outcome will also shape Turkey’s strained relations with the European Union. The NATO member state has curbed the flow of migrants – mainly refugees from wars in Syria and Iraq – into the bloc but Erdogan says he may review the deal after the vote.

Some 55 million people are eligible to vote at 167,140 polling stations across the nation which opened at 7.00 am (0400 GMT) in the east of the country. Voting in the rest of the country begins at 8.00 am and closes at 5 pm (1400 GMT). Turkish voters abroad have already cast their ballots.

“A one-man system is being established, so I said ‘No’. I said ‘No’ for a strong parliament,” said Hasan Celik, 29, after voting in the southeast’s largest city, Diyarbakir.

Ahead of the start of voting, Kurdish militants killed a guard in an attack on a vehicle carrying a district official from the ruling AK Party in southeast Turkey on Saturday night, security sources said.

They said the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants carried out the attack in the Muradiye district of the southeast’s Van province. A second of the AKP official’s guards was wounded in the attack.

The referendum has bitterly divided the nation. Erdogan and his supporters say the changes are needed to amend the current constitution, written by generals following a 1980 military coup, confront the security and political challenges Turkey faces, and avoid the fragile coalition governments of the past.

Opponents say it is a step toward greater authoritarianism in a country where around 40,000 people have been arrested and 120,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs in a crackdown following a failed coup last July, drawing criticism from Turkey’s Western allies and rights groups.

Relations between Turkey and Europe hit a low during the referendum campaign when EU countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, barred Turkish ministers from holding rallies in support of the changes. Erdogan called the moves “Nazi acts” and said Turkey could reconsider ties with the European Union after many years of seeking EU membership.

“Up until I voted I was undecided but the recent terror events wore our people down. Hence I said ‘Yes’, for a powerful Turkey,” said 47-year-old tradesman Yigit Polat in the city of Batman, also in the southeast.

Flag-waving supporters

On the eve of the vote, Erdogan held four separate rallies in Istanbul, urging supporters to turn out in large numbers.

“April 16 will be a turning point for Turkey’s political history… Every vote you cast tomorrow will be a cornerstone of our revival,” he told a crowd of flag-waving supporters.

“There are only hours left now. Call all your friends, family members, acquaintances, and head to the polls,” he said.

Erdogan and the AK Party, led by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, have enjoyed a disproportionate share of media coverage in the buildup to the vote, overshadowing the secular main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).

Erdogan has sought to ridicule CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, playing videos of his gaffes during rallies, and has associated the “No” vote with support for terrorism.

Kilicdaroglu has accused Erdogan of seeking a “one-man regime”, and said the proposed changes would put the country in danger. “This is not about right or left… this is a national issue… We will make our choices with our children and future in mind,” he said during his final rally in the capital Ankara.

Proponents of the reform argue that it would end the current “two-headed system” in which both the president and parliament are directly elected, a situation they argue could lead to deadlock. Until 2014, presidents were chosen by parliament.

The government says Turkey, faced with conflict to the south in Syria and Iraq, and a security threat from ISIS and PKK militants, needs strong and clear leadership to combat terrorism.

The package of 18 amendments would abolish the office of prime minister and give the president the authority to draft the budget, declare a state of emergency and issue decrees overseeing ministries without parliamentary approval.

The private Dogan news agency said the helicopter, with two pilots, four foreign nationals and a Turkish citizen on board, crashed on the side of a highway in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district.

A helicopter crashed in the outskirts of Istanbul on Friday after apparently hitting a television tower in dense fog, killing at least five people, reports said.

The private Dogan news agency said the helicopter, with two pilots, four foreign nationals and a Turkish citizen on board, crashed on the side of a highway in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district.

The district’s mayor, Hasan Akgun, told private NTV television that he saw five bodies at the site of the crash. Pieces of the helicopter were scattered on the highway as well as a green area on the side of the road.

Eyewitness Fikret Karatekin, a taxi driver, told CNN-Turk television by telephone that the helicopter crashed into the tower before crashing on the highway. “It hit the tower and crashed by spinning,” he said, adding that the highway had been closed down.